well, it finally happened

[Meredith]

I spilled water ALL over the carpet. It was probably only a gallon or so, but it really spread itself out. I think Im lucky in the fact that the carpet is not very thick. I went and got the steam cleaner we have and sucked up most of the water. The carpet is still damp. It so happens that there is a heating duct right near where I spilled the water, so I have the heater on. What I am worried about is the water that got under the tank stand. I reached in as far as I could with a towel to soak up what I could, but I can tell its still wet. Hopefully it will dry out ok.

 

[Bearfan]

Point a fan at it. It will probably quarter the drying time from experience.

 

[BASSNMAN]

You can't make an omlette without breaking some eggs and you can't have an aquarium without spilling some water. For those of you that have not, YOU WILL.

 

[Jchillin]

Thank goodness I've already done it. I was syphoning (the old fashioned way) with a 20ft hose. I thought the exit end was firmly placed in the sink. Well, I was going real good with the gravel vacuum, getting the hard to reach places and when I finished, lifted the hose out of the tank and went to the kitchen. I should have grabbed a row boat on my way in. At least 6 gal of water on the kitchen floor!

 

[QTOFFER]

Isn't it amazing just how far a liquid can spread when spilled? How many of you have ever spilled a glass of soda or a cup of coffee on your desk? A co-worker of mine dropped a full 5 gal bottle of water that he was trying to place on the water cooler. The entire carpet in the 8 x 12 foot room was soaked for days!

 

[penpitt]

A couple of months ago after cleaning out my canister filter I guess I did'nt close it properly and over the course of the night it slowly leaked about 20 gallons out of my 80 gallon tank. When i went to work the next morning (at 3:30 am) I walked buy the guest room( where both tanks are) and squish squish on the carpet in the hall. Flipped on the lights in the room thinking a tank had broke but just 25% water missing. So I opened the doors and sure enough I saw a slow leak from the canister where the motor housing fits on the canister.
To make a long story short I called in sick, called my friend whos in the carpet cleaning business, and learned to always triple check the seal when i clean my filter

 

[TankGirl]

I think we have all been there, unfortunately.

Recently I was doing a water change on my 5.5gal, which involves a simple syphon and a 5gal water cooler jug. I walked around to the other side of the stand to get a tricky patch and did not notice that the syphon hose had popped out of the top of the jug, and was draining onto the carpet, right at the base of the stand. I too have a carpet cleaner and suctioned as much as I could, which in total was about 2.5 gals, but you would think it was 10 gals. It was musty and stinky for a few days and that was that. Luckily this time of year most of us have relatively dry houses from being heated so it evaporated and 2 weeks later there is no evidence of the mishap.

 

[TomK2]

It was musty and stinky for a few days and that was that.

I had a sump pump pipe for the house break once, flooded the basement carpet. There is some stuff you can spread on the carpet that kills mold and wipes out the musty odor (can't remember the name). Lasts several months even in the humid summer. I have used this stuff because my basement collects moisture, and even though the carpet was professionally dried and cleaned, the musty smell returns in the summer. I have since learned that anytime a musty smell persists after a spill, the key is to pull up the carpet and replace the padding that got wet. I would bet that anywhere but a basement would dry out well enough not to need this.

 

[Clown Monarch]

1 gallon? Rookie...

Call me when you've siphoned about 30 gallons onto the floor and shorted out your home telephone line.

 

[FawnN]

I just recently was doing a water change with my python attached to the bathroom sink. I hadn't realized that for some reason the drainage was clogged. It took only 2 minutes before I heard some dripping and realized I totally flooded the bathroom, which ran out to the wood floors of the kitchen.

All I can say is, thank goodness it was not on the carpet.

 

[Menagerie]

Oh yes, it happens to everyone

 

[Frisckey1]

LOL...after nearly 5 years of fishkeeping, I thought I was immune. NOT.

2 weekends ago I was performing my usual 50% water change on my 125 gallon tank. As you can imagine, refilling can take a little while. I dumped in my dechlor, started the fill process and hubby came home. I figured I had a minute to ask him how his day was. Needless to say, it was an eventful day for him and I totally forgot until I heard water hitting the carpet.

My problem was that with a tank that big, its on a big wooden stand and the carpet was absolutely soaked! The tank is against a wall and the "deep end" (unfortunately I didn't level the tank stand) was where it overspilled first, leaving an area that I couldn't reach with towels, steam cleaners or anything else. The room is always humid due to all the evap and the bottom of the wood stand got pretty soaked and is now discolored. Hopefully it won't happen again and the wood won't start to rot or anything! All my fish foods under the tank were ruined and everything! 8O

 

[Meredith]

Oh wow. That stinks. At least I could get up most of the water I spilled. And there is virtually no humidity in my house, so it dried fast.

 

[TankGirl]

So sorry to hear that!! I think we have all been there, at some time or another. Hopefully you are done.

I'll just suggest (strongly) that you level the tank. The tank is not designed to hold the force of the water on one pane of the glass (aka "the deep end") so it will eventually leak and possibly break if it is not leveled. What I use are those wooden shims that you get to position window frames and door frames. They are very thin at one end and get thicker, so you wedge them in until you get that side of the stand raised the correct amount, then snap off the escess and you can't see where the shim is, in most cases.

 

[TomK2]

What I use are those wooden shims

Me too! And level when empty never seems to be level when full. Well, I also joined the wet socks club today. I wanted to see how easy it was to service a fluval 404. Everything went fine. I thought that perhaps I didn't get a good seal so I opened it again, this time forgetting to close the water shut off valve. Its amazing how fast 5/8 inch hose can siphon onto your feet! fortunately my feet were standing on concrete, so the clean up was easy. Somewhere else on AA I read about keeping your canister filters in rubbermaid tubs to make such mental lapses easier to deal with, wish I had done this earlier.

 

[FancyGuppyGuy]

Try a dehumidifier with a fan blowing across the carpet this will pull the mositure out.

 

[TankGirl]

Rubbermaid tubs don't fit in my cabinet, so I use deep dishpans. They give me some peace of mind, and even when you disconnect the hoses there is always just a little dribble!